Today we would leave Saigon behind (the name for the city most Vietnamese, other than government officials, prefer to still use), and head into the hinterland to pick up our bikes. We left during ‘rush hour’ and the traffic was unbelievable with special lanes for scooters. There are over 7.3 million scooters in Saigon and I think we saw everyone of them!!

Soon we crossed over the Mighty Mekong River, the fifth largest water system in the world.

Along the way we stopped what appeared to be a typical roadside rest stop. Just like ours at home but open air and with coconuts hanging around!!

About an hour out of Saigon we tied up with our new steeds.

Our guide Hai  introduced the rest of the crew, including ‘Buddha’ the fellow with the green shirt.  Huey and Buddha were old friends, having met on a prior ride.

Time for our first ‘official group photo’. (l-r) Paul, UK; Huey, CO; Brian, CA; David, CA; Eileen, CA; Tom, NY; Cynthia, FL; TommyH, WI; Lois; CA; yours truly; Bo, FL.

Half an hour down the road it was time for our first ferry ride . . .

. . . on what we were sure may not have passed a US Coast Guard inspection . . . but fun!!

On the other side of the river we toured this ‘backyard’ coconut processing operation . . .

. . . where the staff were busy separating the coconut from the hulls . . .

. . . here was the finished product. Ready for roasting and flaking!!

Heading on, we passed through our first small town . . .

. . . where not only did one need to navigate around the ‘business lorries’ . . .

. . . but also the pigs being hauled to market. Hello there big boy!!!

It was almost time for a little rest stop .  I’m hoping to continue my vegetarian lifestyle on this trip. This may make it easier than  thought!!

Not everyone in Vietnam uses a motorized scooters. Many older folks still ride bicycles.

Here was our morning rest stop  . . . ahhh shade . . .

Got to go pee-pee . . . no problem, men just stepped across the road!!!

Lots of cold drinks and goodies (Tom, a retired EMT from NYC), demos chest compressions, he still remembers how to do, in case any of us have the big one due to the heat!!

We all enjoyed a delightful drink of fresh sugar cane juice. The stalks are run through a motorized press, a glass is placed below the spout and when the glass is full you drink it. INSTANT energy . . .

. . . to get us down the road. This was typical of the ‘roads’ we traveled on during most of the day. They were about as wide as an alley, back home, but serviced all the homes along the way. It was like suburbia, Vietnam style!!!

Hai  and his wife have one child and are expecting their second. He was friendly with all the little ones along the way, in fact pulling these two little ones for a mile or so!!!

Lots of dogs along the way. Most looked like this one, reminding me of Daisy back home. When I asked Hai what the breed was he said, ‘Vietnamese dog’!

This is an example of the typical home we passed along the way today. Two rooms deep and two rooms wide.

Many homes had chickens. The roosters and hens were kept separate with these wire baskets . . . great idea!

In the afternoon, we stopped at another small ‘backyard’ industrial plant. Wonder  what happened to the husks from the coconuts we saw being hulled? They are hauled to a producer like this. The threads of fiber are mechanically removed from the hull, and fed into this machine . . .

which spins the fibers into 10 different strands.

The strands are woven into mats . . .

. . . which are made thicker and fuller with every process until they are thick enough to become the ‘cocoa fiber mats’ you buy at Menard’s to put on your front porch!!!

One more short ferry ride for the day. As we were waiting, this fellow rode up with some new puppies . . .

who were very anxious to get out of their cage.

The final run for the day into Tra Vinh was during rush hour and the last several miles made for ‘interesting’ riding!!!

Today we woke up after about 8 hours of sleep with another blue sky day in Ho Chi Minh City, 76 degrees, 72 percent humidity, no wind. A view out the back window of our hotel.

We had some infrastructure problems today. Steaming hot water coming out of both the HOT and COLD water faucets and our air conditioner was on the ‘frtiz’, not cooling. I was busy working on the journal, and since TommyH religiously watches ‘This Old House’, we decided he would take care of the problems by talking the universal language of home repair with the staff. Contacting the front desk resulted in one gent coming up to our eighth floor room to work on the AC. He ‘worked’ the AC remote for about 30 seconds and the unit started blowing cold air again. Problem solved: The problem? Two old Americans that can’t operate a remote control!!! Another guy came up shortly after to fix the water problem. He was in the bathroom turning water on and off for about 5 minutes and soon declared the problem solved. The problem? Not sure but he did get us our cold water back again!!!

Lois, Eileen, Ellsworth and I decided to head to the War Remnant Museum, a facility built by the Vietnamese to explain the war from their perspective. We decided to take a taxi over to the museum and probably walk back to the hotel. Total taxi charge for the four of us 13,000 dong, about 50 cents, USD!!!

We spent about 3 hours at the museum and it was a life changing experience. Here, we as Americans, saw the war from a completely different perspective than the Walter Cronkite reports of the ‘daily body count’ on the nightly news, which was widely recognized as the militaries measure of success.

Outside there was a a fair amount of captured US military hardware, all in pristine shape, on display.

In all the journaling I have done through the years,  this experience caused me the most internal strife on what to ‘report’. It’s a long ways from reporting on what kind of place we stayed in overnight, what great desserts we had and how the biking has been. Once we got inside to the exhibits it was mind numbing. It showed a side of the US military that is hard to imagine. Sure some may have a ‘propaganda’ slant to it from the Vietnamese but it is hard to deny what one sees in photos and the capturing of the detailed information. I really struggled on whether to present anything further than the photo above as a report on our visit but feel I need to share some of what I saw inside. So here are a few of the photos I took.

For those of you who do not want to see or read about our experience, click here to skip down to the next section.

As American’s, I think we like to collectively think we are different from the rest of the world  but when it comes down to it . . . people are people. We are all innately good and just want to have family, and a safe, secure life. War can changed that I think, regardless of nationality or governmental beliefs. Taking an 18 year farm boy from the middle of Iowa, sending him to basic training, making him a killing machine where within five months he is on the front lines seeing and experiencing things he has never dreamed of in his worst nightmares, has got to have a life long effect on you. Seeing your new family of ‘squad members’ being slaughter could bring out the worst in any person, reducing your survival to the basic instinct of . . . staying alive. It probably has been happening since the Revolutionary war and every conflict we have been involved with since.  How anyone who has seen the atrocities of war could ever return to a normal life is beyond belief. I guess it really speaks to the resilience of the human mind and spirit to leave it behind, as best you can, and move on with your life. Hard to describe . . . and I am really at a loss for how to put it into words. Read the photo captions

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The sewer where the children were hiding . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum had four topic areas, one being the results of the Agent Orange spraying operations. Interesting in how the military picks names for operations to maybe simplify or minimalize the notion. The spraying operation was known as ‘Ranch Hand’  . . . I guess like clearing brush!!! Eventually of 25% of the country was sprayed,. 11% of the area more than once. The room of photos showing the aftermath of  juvenile birth defects due to Agent Orange was unnerving. It almost made me sick to my stomach and I left the room after viewing about a quarter o the displays.

We left the museum with heavy hearts . . . lots of discussion on what we had just experienced.

 

On the street are were many food vendors working off the back of there scooters. These ‘Waffle Men’ were very common, cooking their waffles over a little charcoal burner.

Ellwsorth lead us through the Central Park area he had walked through the day before . . .

. . . which had some really interesting palms!!!

We were on the way to the largest indoor market in Ho Chi Minh city, on a mission with Lois to find her a new pair of ‘jammies’, having forgotten hers back in CA.

We went by a store where the staff had been cleaning something and were carting the wash receptacle outside to dispose of the water . . . down the drain!!!

Tommy H, (Ellsworth), wants us to change hotels. He misses his kitties!!!!

New scooters for sale, still in the box!!!

Although scooters seem to have taken over the lowly bicycle for local transportation, bikes are still used for the ‘heavy hauling’!!!

The market was something to see. A full city block in size, with hundreds, maybe thousands of vendors. The merchants are very tactile, reaching out an touching your shoulder or side, encouraging you to stop and buy something. One young girl poked TommyH and said ‘Big Belly’ . . . he did not stop there to buy anything!!!

About a quarter of the market was vegetables including these Durians which are one of several ‘stinky’ fruits sold in the local area.

So bad, that if you are caught with any remnants of one in your room there s an extra 50 USD cleaning fee!!!

We walked by a large park selling trees including these flowering quince which are evidently a good luck purchase made during the Chinese new Year

. . . lots of orange trees . . .

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. . . and the Vietnamese have developed a new cultivar of grapefruit that is grown with it’s own plastic bag attached. Brilliant!!!

Eileen had told us about the ’High Tea’, offered from 3 until 5 pm at our hotel, so we all proceeded down for some strawberry tea and assorted yummies. Notice ‘pinkies’ extended while sipping the tea. Got to fit in you know!!!!

Before you know it was time to eat again. We had such a nice experience at restaurant we went to last night, we decided to go there again and Eileen agreed to join us. Lois needed to ‘veg out’ after the jammie market shopping experience!!! The streets were jammed again, and as usual, if the traffic is not flowing fast enough, which it rarely is for many, they take to the sidewalk to pass cars and other scooters to move ahead . . .

. . . a pedestrian REALLY needs to be on the look out, especially when they are coming up from behind. We’ve learned you just need to keep moving . . . DO NOT STOP. The riders are planning on navigating around you, using your present speed an trajectory in deciding their route. Stopping screws the whole thing up!!!

We got to the restaurant and I REALLY had a hard time deciding between the two versions of stomach being offered . . .

. . . so instead, had the soft tofu which was REALLY delicious. Soft gooey pieces of tofu, fried in a light crispy, batter. I REALLY have to get the recipe!!!

There are what seem to be thousands of ‘scooter officers’, like the two picture on the left of the photo above that handle the parking of scooters along public spaces. Not sure who employees or pays them but they do bring an order to the chaos!!!

You got to go with the flow, DO NOT STOP!!! There are traffic lights with pedestrian ‘Walk’, ‘Don’t Walk’ flashing lights which are generally observed by the sea of scooters but on roundabouts, like this one, it’s every person for themselves!! TommyH and I made it across while Eileen hesitated and had to wait for the next ‘break’ (which doesn’t mean NO SCOOTERS . . . just fewer scooters’)

I was able to capture here successful crossing!!!!

She made it!!!! Great night out and soon it was time for  . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

After a fitfull night of sleep it was time for breakfast, a HUGE buffet with a more options than one could even sample, western and eastern cuisine . . .

I had never seen one of these gadgets at a bread service table before. Honey for your toast that is SO FRESH it was literally dripping out of the honey comb, into the chute and down to a serving pitcher . . . IT TASTED GREAT!!

The phones that TommyH and I own, the Google Pixel, are powered by Googles Project FI and supply service in 147 countries similar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand included. Same $10/mb of data with NO ROAMING CHARGES!!! Interestingly the ‘free’, with ads texting program I use, Textra, always has an ad at the top trying to sell me something.

. . .  they are tracking me  . . .  it’s just they don’t know I am retired.

Interesting at the Vietnam Airline check-in the amount of ‘stuff’ people were taking back with them to Vietnam from Japan. Some folks had 5 and 6 boxes of ‘goods’. You would think whatever they were buying would be just as cheap in Vietnam!!

. . . with over 2 million motor scooters in Ho Chi Minh city,  I must have seen at least half of them on the drive from the airport to the Alagon Hotel. As far as the eye could see in front and behind us. Just a sea of humanity making their way home on a Friday night. Utter chaos but yet everything flows along . . . and hardly and horn honking!!!

I tied up with Tom at the Alagon and moved into our room. We went down the street for a nice dinner, dodging motor scooters heading towards us on the sidewalk. If the street traffic is not moving fast enough, some scooter drivers just come right up on the sidewalk! I ate those greens on the plate of spring rolls, which afterwards I thought might have been a mistake, but no ‘tummy issues’ Yippee!!!

We were both in bed at 9:00pm. I slept until about 2:00am and woke up ‘fully awake’ but fell back to sleep by about 4:00am, I think, and then slept until 7:00am. YESSSSSSSSSSSS

So other than getting a bad cold two weeks before the trip I was pretty much on the mend, through the running nose and hacking stage but then . . . nose bleed problems.

Two trips to the clinic and one to urgent care, over a week period, still produced no good solution. Dry air they said . . . use petroleum jelly to coat the inside of my nose!  Didn’t get that advice until after three nights of bleeding in bed. My nose started gushing each night about 3:00am and by the time I woke up from the event, the pillows and sheets looked like a murder scene. BUT . . . the p-jelly coating seemed to work and I was ‘flow free’ the last two night before the flight.

Oh they had the ‘nose kit’ ready when I went to urgent care but no cauterizing of nose blood vessels took place.

With my cold and nose problems hopefully under control the next issue was the weather. Rain, snow and sleet predicted for MSN and ORD, the day before, and during my departures. emJay was able to take me to the bus stop and soon I was on the way to O’Hare. No delays. Did I mention she is ‘so nice” . . .can’t wait until she retires in a couple of years an we can do all these things together!!!

I went down the night before my flight , to hopefully avoid any local travel issues and had a nice nights sleep, as it continued to snow outside. Lots of ‘white real estate’ in my bed. Hopefully no nose bleeds . . . and there were none. Now I just got to get my nose through the 23 hours of flight time.

Anticipating TSA staffing issues at the airport due to the government shutdown, I got to the airport three hours early rather than the recommend two hours. No problem. It took 15 minutes to get through the JAL airline checkin process, mainly because of all the ‘packages’ visitors from the US were taking back home. A surprising number of what looked like TV’s from Walmart!!!

Then it was on to TSA security where there we only about 15 people in front of me and I was through the process in 10 minutes!!! Easy, Peasy!!! I thanked each of the staff who assisted me through the process for showing up for work during the slowdown. Might have something to do with the good old fashion ‘work ethic’ so common in the Midwest.

The concourses we’re we’re basically empty. Funny considering the hotel was full of people whose flights had been cancelled. Most were flying domestically.

So . . . at this point I had some time to work on this, as I looked out the window watching the ‘de-icing’ process of our JAL airship that will carry me to Narita, Japan and then onto Ho Chi Minh city. More to come!!!

Oh and there was more to come . . . after ferrying out to the run way, the airport was closed for several hours. Our captain had the choice of sitting out on the runaway or returning the jet to the concourse , which is what he decided to do

The door of the jet was opened and folks were allowed to get out and mill around the waiting area. After an hour and a half it was time to refuel the plane. So were told to unbuckle our seats belts in case there ended up being a fire!  After that we needed to be de-iced one more time and them it was time to load everyone up and head for the tarmac again. We finally lifted off 4 hours after our schedule departure which of course made the 12 hour flight even longer!!!

Our route . . .

. . . would take us right over Watertown and Fond du lac, emJay’s ancestral homes. She had been up in Kolher for a meeting and was driving back to Madison about the time we flew over. I looked down and thought I saw her driving on Hwy 41!!!!

. . . finally we were touching down in Tokyo . . .

. . . all in all my Gamin watch told me it had been a stress free day . . . got to stay in the frame of mind!!!

Japan Airline (JAL) has there act together. When we landed at Narita, they had a sign at the end of the concourse with the names of the 50 or so of us who had missed our connecting flights because of the delay. Dashi walked up to me, to ask me my name, and went and got my ‘dossier’ that had: my lodging voucher, dinner and breakfast vouchers (all paid for my JAL), my rescheduled flight info for the next day on Vietnam Airlines and a map on where to catch the shuttle bus  to the Nikko Hotel located adjacent the airport.

I went to station 33, there was the bus and 10 minutes later . . .

We pulled up to the Nikko . . .

which had very festive lighting!!!

I checked in at reception and went right dinner, had a nice Japanese dinner with of course a nice plate of desserts. Felt I earned it after all the delays!!!

Then it was up to my room. spartan but very . . .

clean and with everything I needed for the the night . . .

. . .and my first exposure to the infamous Japanese toilet system which have heated seats  . . .

. . . and should com with a users manual!!!! I climbed into bed planning on having a full nights sleep before my 5:30 wakeup call . . . but unfortunately only slept until 2:00am and then tossed and turned for the rest of the night. A chance for a good nights sleep wasted because of jet lag!!!